Page 51 of The Girl He Claimed

"By killing people."Paige could barely contain the anger that she felt then.

"Maybe I should tell you thathe tried to take advantage of me," Caroline said. "Would you believethat, I wonder?"

"No, my father wouldn't dothat."

Caroline smiled a small, cruelsmile. "You'll never know, not for sure. You'll always wonder now."She tilted her head to one side. "Or maybe none of it happened like thatat all."

"How did it happen,then?" Paige asked.

"Maybe I was always like this.Maybe I followed him through those woods because I saw someone I could make atarget. Maybe I lured him off the path by pretending to be hurt... they like itwhen you're small, and weak. They say you killed someone, knocked them off aroof. That's why you had to come back here, right?"

Paige was having trouble keeping upwith Caroline's sudden changes of subject, but she was determined to play alongto buy time.

"I did, yes. I was trying to savea life at the time. So you'd better believe that I won't hesitate to shoot youto save Christopher."

"Oh, I'm sure," Carolinesaid. "Tell me, what did it feel like? What was it like to kill someone,even if you tell yourself that you didn't really mean it, that you had to doit?"

"What do you mean, what was itlike?" Paige asked, struggling to follow Caroline's conversation. "Itwas awful."

"Really? For me, it's...peaceful. I get to watch the last moments. I get to stare into their eyes andknow that I'm completely in control. And Paige?"

"Yes?"

"I'm not stupid. I know you'retrying to keep me talking, trying to find a clear shot, but you've forgottenone thing. Maybe I'm keeping you talking too."

Paige didn't understand for asecond; then terror flooded through her as she realized what Caroline meant.Adam was still down here, and all the time that Paige had been talking toCaroline, she hadn't been watching out for him.

Paige heard a sound behind her, thesound of a foot scraping on the floor. She started to spin towards that sound,but even as she did it, Paige knew that she was too late.

Adam knocked her gun from her handsas she turned towards him, sending it clattering to the floor. One of his armswrapped around Paige's neck, starting to squeeze with horrifying force.

"It's good to see you again,Paige," Adam whispered into her ear. "I'm sure we're going to have somuch fun."

Paige started to try to fight back,to lash out at him, to break free, but Adam's grip was too strong. Blacknessclosed in on her, and the last thing Paige saw before she blacked out wasCaroline, the Exsanguination Killer, dragging Christopher's limp form awaytoward one of the side chambers.

CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE

Caroline felt surprisingly relievedthat Paige finally knew who she was.

Surprising, because why should shecare what anyone thought? Yet, in some ways, she'd been connected to Paige foryears now, ever since the moment when Caroline had killed her father.

You never forgot your first kill.If she closed her eyes, she was that young woman again, staring down at EdwardKing, watching the blood slowly drain from him.

Caroline could still remember themoment she'd known that she was going to kill him. She'd been watching him for overan hour, fascinated with the way he moved, with the way he smiled and laughedas he packed things up in his trailer.

She'd known, somehow, that thiswould be the last day. She would kill him then, and there would be no escapefrom it.

Caroline had told Paige some of thetruth about her reasons, more than she'd intended. Even now, she had to pushback the pain of the past, had to lock it all away behind the utterlyimpenetrable walls she'd built in herself.

The moments when she was killedwere the only ones where Caroline felt peace. There was something about knowingthat she was in control, about knowing that she was taking the life of someoneelse who thought that they were bigger, stronger, better, that stilled thestorm inside her for a little while.

Now, though, Caroline had anotherkill to make. One that would end the current cycle. A series of three kills,with this one as the peak.

Caroline had always found movingher victims into position to be the hardest part of what she did. Once she'dsedated them, it was easy enough to tie them up and put them into whateverposition she wanted. It was moving them that was the difficult bit.

Take Agent Christopher Marriott,for example. Caroline was smaller than he was and lighter, so she had to draghis muscled form across the stone of the basement floor into the side chamberthat she'd picked out for this.

She did it, though. She always didit.

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